Learning to Think
by Purplerhino
Summary: #7 in the "Learning" series. Glitch/Scraps Summary: I was thinking something just now, wasn’t I? Warning: Vague allusions to sexual assault.


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**Title: **Learning to Think

**Disclaimer:** I own nothing. Not a thing. Scifi and Baum ultimately own it. I don't own property or money, so suing me would be pointless.

_**Notice:** This fic only has **one** Tinman character in it. The other two are OCs._

Part #**7** of the "**Learning" **Series. Oneshot.

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"It's one of her bad days," Mr. Mustache tells the glitchy man as he comes into the parlor. They were both upside down.

Welcome to my parlor said the spider to the fly. Spider or fly? It was my parlor, so I was spider. I don't want to eat any bugs though. Yuck. Give me a nice green apple, or a piece of chocolate. Creamy, dreamy in my mouth. Coat my tongue. Hold my tongue. Quiet as a mouse. A mouse was better than a spider. Eating crumbs is more fun than eating flies. Did spiders become frogs when they grow up?

But it isn't a bad day. It's a nice day. Sun is shining. Sunshine. Glitchy man calls me that sometimes. You are my sunshine, my only sunshine, you make me happy… But I don't shine unless I'm all sweaty. Makes no sense.

Glitchy man is surrounded by blue and green and yellow. All equal and stirring around him with the swirls of a soap bubble on air, only man-shaped, not bubble-shaped. His colors are pretty. Mustache man is all red, brown and pink swirling about. The colors mean something, but I try to reach for it and the bubbles pop. Pop, pop, pop, until my hands are slick with wet residue and …

I was thinking something just now, wasn't I?

"Hon, is there a reason you're standing on your head?" the Glitch sits on the floor in front of me.

"Seeking a change in perspective." That had been a silly question. Why else stand on my head? Unless it was to twist and stretch; swing and fly and be. Up in the air with the greatest of ease…

He smells like detergent and oil and metal and a whiff of magic. He's mine, and he's fine. Fine; attractive, elegant, nice, slender, or is it to penalize? Did I have to pay a fine?

"Is it working?" His dark eyes hold amusement, not the worry of Mr. Mustache.

Is what working? Oh! Perspective.

"A little. You have new boots, no spills or scuffs on the surface yet. Scuff, Tough, Rough. Footwear must be rough in case sulfuric acid leaks from batteries. Sodium carbonate neutralizes effect. Also used in making pretzels, brown up the surface. Can we get pretzels?"

"Sure we can, sunshine," Glitch's eyes even smiled.

I swing my feet backwards, arching and stretching my back and shifting my weight to my feet to bring myself upright, but facing away from Glitch. Huh. Wrong way. Was I always the wrong way? Or just wrong?

My hand goes to my head, where my hair parted. Mustache man had put my hair into braids that started at my temples and hugged my head all the way to the back where it was a puff of curls. He said not to ask where he learned that. So I didn't. But my fingers go the part and feel only hair and skin and a thin, raised line. Metal. There should be metal teeth there. Oh no! I lost it and my brains were going to fall out all over the floor. Or did they, I was on my head.

I go down on my hands and knees and search the floor.

"What's wrong, little girl?" Mustache man. Papa bear. No, that was another, but same role filled. Frank. He was frank and truthful and my keeper. But I'm not his brother so he could be my keeper.

"No zip. My brains must have fallen out. I lost my wits. I'm witless. Witless lass." I started to panic. How can I think without brains? I don't think straight some of the time anyway.

"No, honey, you're fine. The zip was taken out so nothing can spill." Gentle hands on my shoulder, pulling me up. "Because no one will ever poke and prod in there again. See, we're a pair." Glitch bent his head and pulled his loose curls aside so I could see his scar.

"Matched set. But this one's broken. All the Queen's horses and all the Queen's men…"

"You think I should call Raw? Maybe he can…" The frank man spoke low, as if I couldn't hear him.

"No. He can't help with this. It has to be worked out. Or ridden out. Did she wake up like this?" Glitch looked at the Frank.

"She woke up screaming about rats climbing over her." Daddy. Frank was the Daddy and I was the little girl. He called me his little girl.

"I'm right here, you know. Ears work. I can see and hear and feel. No talking around me like I'm a kitten," I huffed at the men.

Men. I didn't like most men. They slapped and hurt and kicked and held me down and put themselves inside while I screamed and screamed. Fill my mouth to stop the screams. Headcase deserves it. Tried to steal, tried to eat; work it off, girly. That's it, squirm.

Why am I shaking? The room got all shimmery. I grab hold of my arms so I don't shake apart.

"Scraps? Molly?" Glitch puts his arms around me and I scream and push away. But he doesn't hurt. He looks shocked and scared and sad. Now sad, so very sad.

"It's okay. I won't touch you." His voice is soft and full of promises. He's mine to keep. Mine and he chases the demons away. Turned a lump into a pile of parts and clay.

"Wrong. Wrong." I grab onto his fancy jacket; blue today. I feel the fabric in my fists as I pull myself in and almost climb into his lap. He is so careful putting his arms around me again. But it's okay. He isn't holding, he's protecting. Keeping the bad things away with his arms.

"I held my granddaughter like this." My voice is so soft, afraid to come out. "When she was six and she'd scraped her knee. I sang her a lullaby. And cuddled her until she felt better. My granddaughter."

I never had a granddaughter. Not hardly old enough. Not mine. "I'm having a bad day."

I feel Glitch's chin on top of my head.

"It's okay. Everyone has a bad day now and then. That's why we have friends and family. To help us through the bad days." His Adam's Apple tickles my nose as I sit all curled up in Glitch scent and warmth.

"I wish I could do that." The frank man sat down next to us.

"Family. Daddy knows best. Helps keep the ground under my feet. Chase the nightmares away. Daddy helps." I pat his hand.

"Quick, think. If a gear is turning clockwise and is attached to two more gears in a row, which way is the third gear turning?" Glitch through out the random question and I caught it.

"Clockwise, silly."

He smiled. "Right. Is rubber a conductor or an insulator?"

"Insulator. Metals are conductors, so is water." These questions were silly, and easy.

"What're ya doin'?" Frank's voice cut in.

"The right side is the side tampered with; creative side. The logical, left side is all Molly," Glitch explained.

"Scraps. Not Molly. I'm all tattered scraps right now," I mutter to myself.

"You're both and you know it. Now, why can't you take a picture of a Munchkin woman with hair curlers?" Glitch was grinning at me.

I tried to grasp the question. "You can't take a picture with curlers, silly. You need a camera."

Word association; a word isn't always a word and a turd isn't always a turd. A turd can be a person.

"What is the largest possible number you can write using only 2 numbers - just 2 numbers, no other mathematical symbols?" Glitch was really smiling now. So was Daddy.

Ninety nine was on the tip of my tongue and then something inside my head seemed to click. "Nine to the ninth power. 387,420,489."

"What starts with "e" ends with "e" and contains only one letter?" Glitch fired back at me, rapidly.

I had to stop and think, but I was thinking in lines, not in jumbles. The knots were coming undone. Oh, this was so very bad a riddle.

"Envelope." I was grinning back.

Frank started to laugh. "I think I'm gonna need a book a' riddles."

"What's Frank's last name?" Glitch was looking at me, full of expectation.

"Garelli. Commissioner of the Tin Men. Some of them call him 'ornery old coot'." I was happy to make them happy. I just didn't know what I had done to bring such smiles.

"Come on, sunshine. Let's go hunt down some pretzels." Glitch moved me off his lap and stood, pulling me to my feet.

"Oh… I like pretzels. How did you know that?"


End file.
